Entertainment Weeklyspoke with HBO's programming president, Casey Bloys, on July 30. He said the show will end after its eighth season. These are the wishes of GoT's showrunners, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and HBO plans to respect them.

"Yes, they have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do," Bloys told EW during the Television Critics Association’s press tour. "Believe me, as the new [programming executive] coming in, if I could get them to do more. I would take 10 more seasons. But we take their lead on what they think they can do the best version of the show."

This news will surely deal a crushing blow to the show's 25 million viewers, who have followed George R.R. Martin's tale from its first episode. However, the news isn't all that unexpected.

"We've talked about it," Bloys told Entertainment Weekly. "It's something I'm not opposed to, but of course it has to make sense creatively. I’m not sure that [Benioff and Weiss] could really wrap their heads around it when they’re just about to start production [on season 7]. It’s a pretty intense production, they’re about to start production soon. I’m open to it. The guys weren’t opposed to it, but there’s no concrete plans for it at this point."

Who would a spin-off follow, though? The Starks? Maybe Jon Snow? Or the mother of dragons? That's where the fun begins: What does a post-Westeros world look like? We have two seasons to find out.